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Mindfulness or Autopilot in Our Daily Lives?

Author: null null

Published: 14th April 2012 18:00

Juggling plates

So who lives on autopilot?

What kind of things do we all do daily while we're thinking of other things? Things like cooking, driving, brushing our teeth, going through the same routine day after day. Our autopilot can be really useful - it helps us juggle our busy, demanding lives, allows us to plan the week's shopping while we're walking the kids to school, let's us plan that next meeting while we're driving to work.

Sometimes though if life's become more challenging, if you've experienced changes in your life, or if you're feeling stressed, exhausted or anxious for whatever reason, it can feel like that autopilot is the only thing that gets you through the day. And sometimes while those daily tasks are still carrying on, your thoughts can become a constant stream of worries - worries about what's already happened, worries about what might happen.

And trying to 'think' your way out of this situation, trying to solve the problem, can just seem to make matters worse.

‘The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing our new landscapes but in having new eyes'. Marcel Proust

'Mindfulness' is an antidote, a way of stepping away from this destructive cycle and looking at things differently. It's not about accepting the unacceptable, or about sitting cross legged staring at a candle. Mindfulness is about experiencing life in the present moment, finding ways to nourish yourself, and making choices.

In the first of a series of workshops over the summer months, Carolyn Barber explains the basic principles of mindfulness, and how the connections between our bodies and minds can influence stress and tension for better or worse. She introduces participants to simple exercises which can be practised daily to improve mental and physical health.